Congo - Suffering of the People

Posted by Raphaydeena
on March 03, 2018

Congo - Suffering of the People

In Congo’s sun-scorched and dusty south, thousands of miners scour underground tunnels hunting for cobalt. Many of them work by hand. They don’t use power tools, they don’t wear face masks and no gloves. They are known as creuseurs — French for diggers

DRC has $24 trillion worth of Valuable Minerals/ Coltan, Gold, Diamonds, Tin, Uranium. This equals combined GDP of Europe & US. $6 million resources leave Congo every day, but for Congolese people there is only misery & death. Western states back militias who extract minerals for them

1871 to 1960 – Congo was owned by King Leopard of Belgium, he enslaved population – rape/torture/killing was common – 10million were killed

1960 -1961 – Patrice Lumumba, a pan-Africanist, led the nation to independence. With Belgium support Katanga & Kasai provinces seceded from Congo. Lumumba asked US for help, US refused, Lumumba turned to Russian help. US behind coup by Army Chief Mobutu - Lumumba was executed. Civil war follows till 1965

UN report: ‘this massive looting (of minerals) was aided by US-backed governments in Uganda, Rwanda, & DRC & Western multinational corporations that used (and still use) militias as a conduit to gain access to those resources’

US supplied Mobutu $300 million weapons & $100 million military training. When Kabila took power, the Clinton admin quickly offered same to him. US armed 8 of 9 governments directly involved in war in DRC since Kabila’s coup

DRC govt. having arms-for-diamonds agreements with companies in the Czech Republic, Israel & Ukraine;2004 arms trafficking network linking the DRC and Liberia involving international cargo companies;The transfer of over 200 tons of arms to a pro-government armed group in north Kivu by a local company using aircraft from a South African firm supplying UN peacekeepers in 2003

The country is kept poor by Western countries that are taking the resources out of it and returning arms, poverty and death to the people